Braben reveals Elite's Future on Computer and Video Games is a Q&A with
Elite co-creator David Braben about the possibility that Elite will be making a
return in an updated form. Braben expresses that Frontier Developments intends
to follow their coming project The Outsider with not one, but two games based on
the seminal '80s space combat game, one a single-play game (with "normal"
multiplayer support) and an MMO variation. This is all speculative, as the new
Elites would follow the completion of development of their next project, The
Outsider, and will rely on some of that game's technology, so this all could
change, but in the meantime, it provides hope for the fans of the
original:

Braben told us, "There are two project designs that we've got now.
One is a multiplayer game, the other is a single-player, still allowing
multiplayer, but not massive multiplayer, which we do plan to do and that will
follow on from The Outsider and use some of the technologies that that employs.
That's the way they fit together."

Braben continued, "Certainly the first Elite incarnation will be a single player
game, that supports multiplayer, but we're not talking thousands, we're talking
tens of players."

While an Elite MMO still remains the ultimate dream (coincidentally as we argued
for recently in our Bring It Back! feature,) Braben is under no illusions that
it will be a simple task: "Although I think it's a long way off, one thing I'm
wary of is that it's a very difficult game to provide for well. There will be
groups of fans who will be very critical of what happens, that's true of every
game really, but it's a lot of work to keep that going for a long time."

Your last "game", First Contact had so many fucking bugs it's NEVER been completed by anyone. That was...shit, I dunno, 14 years or so ago? So now all of a sudden, I'm supposed to believe you can release a PLAYABLE modern game?

Sure.

Besides, this whole "Elite 4!!!!" theme has been going since 1999, and there's still not even a single screenshot to show anything is even being done. It's like the Duke Nukem of space games.